IGAD's meetings start in Tripoli

Works of the 8th session of the executive council of the coalition of the "desert and sahara states" started in Tripoli on Thursday in the presence of the foreign ministers and the ministers of economy, finance, planning and the interior, the coalition's secretary general and experts from the coalition's member states which includes 18 countries.

In an inaugural speech, the secretary of the people's committee for African unity in Libya, Ali Abdul Salaam al-Tureiki, who is the current President of the executive council, in the name of the coalition states, commended the struggle of the Palestinian against the Israeli forces.

He renewed the condemnation of the coalition to terrorism, stressing that fighting terrorism is the responsibility of the international community as a whole. He called for convening an international conference defining the concept of terrorism, and dealing with its reasons as well as making a clear distinction between terrorism and people's right to resist occupation and repression.

The current session's agenda includes issues relating to the march of integration in the coalition's membership; means of establishing a free trade area in it, founding the social, cultural and economic council; founding a higher commission to develop the desert, in addition to other issues pertinent to the infrastructure, exhibitions, fairs and marketing agricultural products, insurance funds and other related issues.